Monday, June 17, 2013

Brandon Davies in the NBA Draft

Brandon Davies wasn't even in the NBA picture a few months ago, but he ended his career at BYU on a high note and was named MVP of the Portsmouth Invitational in April, shooting him into the NBA combine and getting him 13 pre-draft workouts with NBA teams, including the Clippers, Timberwolves, Trail Blazers, Kings (run away, Brandon, run away!!!), Pistons, and Jazz. He is now predicted to be a mid- to late-second round draft pick.

Obviously, I would LOVE it if he were drafted by the Jazz. However, I seriously doubt that's going to happen. The Jazz are in desperate need of guards-- not big men (hmmm... I wonder what they should do about that problem??? It's a no-brainer to me!!!) I think it's great that the Jazz invited Brandon to work out for them, though, since he grew up being a fan. He seems so happy just to be given the opportunity, as evidenced in his post-workout interview.

Some people are saying Brandon won't get drafted and he'll either sign as a free agent or go play overseas for a few years to try to raise his stock. I think he will get drafted, though. He's not going to be an instant star or even a starter for awhile, but he could be a solid post player off the bench. I'm not even going to attempt to guess where he'll go. All I hope is that someone is willing to give him a chance (and not like the Kings gave Jimmer a "chance"-- they both deserve a REAL chance!)

I transcribed some remarks about Davies from one of the commentators at the NBA combine that I think sum things up pretty well:

"A lot of these kids are heralded kids, and everything's kind of been given to them. Whereas for Davies, he's had to earn that. As a coach in training camp, when he's your second-round pick and he's kicking the first-round pick's butt, and your coaching staff says yes, you know what? We can use this guy. We can put him on our roster because we know he's gonna be at practice early, staying late, low maintenance off the court, and a guy that could develop"

Unfortunately, Davies is famous (some may say infamous) for the way his sophomore season came to a close. While some people think that's a disadvantage to him, I think it actually could be a huge advantage to him. He fought through adversity with a ton of class, he didn't give up or transfer to another team (which would have been the easy thing to do), and he came back from a truly humiliating experience to show he could be even better because of it. Brandon is one of the most admirable basketball players BYU has ever seen, in my opinion, and he deserves to be given a shot to play in the league.